A tale of happiness and sorrow
by ElAkari92
Summary: -
1. Happiness

The sunlight broke though the mighty crowns of old oak trees standing close to the shore of a small lake. Around the lake grew some Reed, tall and proud covering parts of the shore. Not far away from an old shed, a girl was on her knees, long, dark hair, eyes closed, she listened to the sound of the waves. She enjoyed just letting the time pass. Without a goal, without even wasting a thought on trivial things, she comes to the lake every day. She comes to the lake, enjoys the peace, and leaves hours later. It is not known from where she comes or where she goes after. One day she climbed a tree and stared into the blue, calm water. The sun was drawing the leaves' shadows on her face, suddenly she got startled.

Something caught her attention, there was something glittering beneath the surface of the lake. She climbed down the tree and ran to the water but when she reached it, she had lost track of the shiny thing, hidden beneath the small waves. Suddenly she felt disappointed, although her days were always the same here, she had the feeling to have missed something. Sunken in thoughts she left the lake side and went home.

The very next day she tried to find the mysterious glimmer again. But whenever she thought that she found it, it seemed to move farther away. She was on the verge of despair and sat down beneath an old tree. "Why can't I reach it?" "Does it hide from me? " she questioned herself. Then she was looking at some birds strafing the sky. Then the small shed - the shed she saw every day, caught her attention. She jumped up and went to it. She knocked and shouted: "Hello, anybody in there?" - No answer. She tried to open the crooked, wooden door. It was not locked. She went in. What she found couldn't been more astonishing to her. She found a small boat, covered in dust, a few tools and some rundown paddles. She immediately knew what to do.

She dragged the boat out of the shed, into the water and paddled to the center of the lake. There she could see it again, the bright light, she saw as a weak glimmer earlier. She was petrified by its appearance. It was so near that she could nearly touch it. After she regained control over her body, she did not hesitate and jumped into the lake, trying to dive to the ground and get what she was so obsessed with.

Underwater it was silent, she could only feel her heartbeat and see the glow of what she thought must be a treasure. She went deeper, 2 meters, 3 meters, 4 meters... she started to feel a burning sensation in her lungs, but still went on, pain was nothing that could stop her now. Then it was right in front of her; a light so bright that it would make the sun look like a spark. She reached out, grabbed it and went back to the surface. Completely exhausted, she climbed back in to the boat. But what she was obsessed with was not with her. Just a knowing smile of her face. She paddled to the shore, left the lake side with a smile of pure happiness - and was never seen again. But what did she found in this lake? It wasn't gold, no diamonds, no rubies. But it was indeed a treasure, a treasure of immense worth.

What she found was

Happiness


	2. Sorrow

There was a boy, some called him pretty, some called him ugly, some liked him, some hated him, but no one understood him. Whenever they met him, he had a faint smile on his face, he didn't talk much; he wasn't disrespectful, he just wanted to listen. His own life, so he thought, was boring and stale, all the others had interesting stories to tell, he was merely an observer, he wasn't getting involved in the life of others, just watching life passing by.

Being curious was what defined him as a child, learning everything about the world was his goal, even before acquiring the ability to read, he wanted to extract any bit of knowledge out of the books he found in his parents library.

"For knowledge itself is power."

Those are the words the boy lived by.

Years passed, growing up the boy learned and learned, but the more he knew the world, the more he was able to catch a peek behind the mask. The world he lived in, a pretty utopia where people longed for wisdom, was nothing but an illusion. People didn't seek wisdom, they looked for happiness. A concept he could barely grasp. "Why would people like to be unknowing?" "Why don't they want to know the truth?" – Questions he asked himself many times, without ever coming to a conclusion.

Others were no help to him, they were even questioning his beliefs, that's when decided to abandon mankind, they didn't understand him, and he didn't understand them. He was different, different from them all. At this point he lost all the motivation he had, pained by doubt, he decided to bury his old self. The branches of his mind that reached out of the cage of normality were cut off.

Each day became the same, stale, boring, monotonous. He did what he was told to do. What else should he do? For him there was no answer, no dream, no drive, his life became a road and he just followed the signs not knowing where he wanted to end up. The only thing his mind clearly told him was to stay away from others. When people normally slept, he was awake, escaping the reality. Day by day he became more frustrated, despite being a young man he felt like old, out of place in a world full of youngsters.

But then, the summer came for him.

One day he left his house, condemning himself for leaving it. He wanted to be alone, inside, but he also wanted to be outside, enjoying the sun like he used to do as a child. His destination was a lake, calm, surrounded by trees whose leaves were rustled by a gentle breeze. The trees were casting enough shadow on the charred grass they stood on, so he could escape the burning sun. The perfect place for torn self like him.

As he was searching for a nice to place rest, a strange sight caught his attention. In a patch of dried weeds, there was a kind of plant he never saw before. Its petals were of a shining red that was a total contrast to anything else around. Its leaves were fallen off, but the petals hinted that it was in full blossom. Strange filaments stemmed from the core of the flower, long and bent upwards, as if they were greeting the sun.

"What a strange sight you are." he said to the flower. "You don't even look like flower. There are so many pretty plants, and you decided to look like this. Pretty hilarious if you ask me." Amused by his discovery he sat down next to it, and spend his day at the lake, mocking the flowers appearance. Little did he know, fate pulled the strings behind this encounter.

Even at home, he was thinking about the strange flower. Like there was a symbiotic relationship between the mutilated tree, that was his mind, and the image of the red petals burned into his memory, his broken self began to mend. From now on, every day he sought after the flower. Its existence touched his heart, he knew that the flower understood him. It was different, unlike any other flower. Those two were fragments of the same soul, which found each other.

The emptiness that pained the boy day after day was gone. The only thing left in the formerly dark corners of his thoughts were the red filaments the flower spun. A deep and dark well, which now radiated a warm and colorful atmosphere. The life that was formerly boring and stale became a story in itself. The observer became a narrator, telling everyone about the strange flower, which was the prettiest thing he ever saw. If you listened to him, you would have thought that this flower must have been an incarnation of an old deity, being able perform miracles. They couldn't see what it did to him. The image others had of him was the sum of a thousand lies. His smiles always betrayed what his heart felt. But finally, he found a reason to live.

Because he couldn't stand being separated from his new friend, he grabbed the flower, pulled until the roots gave in and took it home. A special place reserved at the window became the flowers new home. In the beginning the boy treated the flower like a piece of art, careful not to hurt it he cleaned its flowers from dust and watered it every day. Time still went on the same as in the past, but now he had a companion.

As time passed, the seasons changed. The flower lost some of its elegance, the bright red turned pale. In a time when it needed special care, the boy didn't think about the flower as much as he used to, in his naivety he thought things would never change. But they did. The petals became dry and brown, the two fragments drifted apart.

After a day out, thinking about life and the future, he realized what was going on, that he immediately needed to nourish the flower back to life, to keep the essence of his existence.  
He came home and opened the door, just to see that his nightmares came alive. The petals had fallen off, the leafstalk resembled the dry reed, which grew by lake. The color was gone. The well in his mind opened up, overflowing with darkness entangling everything that once was bright. The symbiosis was gone, the tree shrouded in darkness.

The boy tried to bring the flower back to the lake, digging up the place where it once stood, returning it to the earth. However it was of little use. The flower was dead. The faint sound of dark waves rolling onto the shore aligned with the beating of his heart. The darkness he perceived mixed with the darkness he felt. He had lost any purpose in life, so he just slowly wandered around, step by step he came closer to the lake. At first the black water washed around his feet, then his knees and finally engulfed him in cold and misery. Numbed by the pain his body collapsed, all feelings gone, just his mind steering towards the inevitable. Overwhelmed by a superior enemy the boy gave his life away and drowned in sorrow.


End file.
